NORTH DAKOTA AND THE AMERICAN INNS OF COURT : SOCIETIES OF LAWYERS , JUDGES , LEGAL EDUCATORS , AND LAW STUDENTS
MICHAEL S . MCGINNISS
Dean , University of North Dakota School of Law
Since 2013 , I have been proud to be a Master of the Bench in The Randy H . Lee American Inn of Court in Grand Forks , N . D . It received its charter from the national American Inns of Court in 2005 , and was named in honor of the long-time and much beloved Professor Randy H . Lee , who taught and mentored generations of UND Law students . His teaching areas included corporate and labor law , conflict of laws , and – most significantly and what he became best known for throughout our state – professional responsibility . He passed away five years before I joined our faculty in 2010 and began teaching our professional responsibility course . At each year ’ s SBAND Annual Meeting , or when I traveled within the state to participate in training programs , committee meetings , or other engagements with the bench and bar , more lawyers and judges than I can count fondly recalled him to me . In so doing , they impressed on me the high responsibility I bore and the legendary role I sought to fill in teaching legal ethics to new generations of UND Law students .
Professor Randy H . Lee ’ s beloved wife , Paula Lee , has been an honorary member of our Inn since its inception . She too was a highly regarded professor at UND , in its language department . In December 2020 , she contacted me and said she had been going through items that she had been storing in her home that related to Randy and offered them to the UND School of Law . I gratefully accepted her kind and thoughtful gifts on our behalf . One of the items was a beautiful framed original founding document of The Randy H . Lee American Inn of Court ( Number 395 ), which granted the Inn the following Charter :
1 . To establish a society of judges , lawyers , legal educators , law students , and others to promote excellence in legal advocacy in accordance with the Professional Creed of the American Inns of Court ;
2 . To foster greater understanding of and appreciation for the adversary system of dispute resolution in American law , with particular emphasis on ethics , civility , professionalism and legal skills ;
3 . To provide significant educational experiences that will improve and enhance the abilities of lawyers as counselors and advocates and of judges as adjudicators and judicial administrators ;
4 . To promote interaction and collegiality among all legal professionals in order to minimize misapprehensions , misconceptions and failures of communication that obstruct the effective practice of law ;
5 . To facilitate the development of law students , recent law school graduates , and less-experienced lawyers as skilled participants in the American court system ;
6 . To preserve and transmit ethical values from one generation of legal professionals to the next ;
7 . To build upon the genius and strengths of the common law and the English Inns of Court and to renew and inspire joy and zest in legal advocacy as a service worthy of constant effort and learning .
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